Democratic Party Asks TV Stations to Pull Ad

Attorneys for the Democratic Party of Virginia are asking cable stations to stop running a controversial TV campaign ad by a Republican state legislator from Fairfax County that uses unidentified, unverified quotes from a blog.

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The letter calls Del. Timothy D. Hugo's ad against candidate Rex Simmons "unethical, deceptibe and misleading" and says it violates the American Association of Political Consultants Code of Ethics.

In Hugo's ad, a narrator recounts what "others are saying" about Simmons. As quotes flash across the screen, the narrator says Simmons is "running the most cowardly campaign I have ever seen" and "has been lying to voters the entire campaign."

The ad cites Raising Kaine as the source of the quotes about Simmons. Lowell Feld, one of the founders of the blog Raising Kaine, also is calling on television stations to pull Hugo's ad, saying it misleads voters into thinking that Raising Kaine opposes Simmons.